Mineurs

The double meaning in french of film title MINEURS resume the sense of the film: mineurs as children and as mineworkers in the coalmines. Italy, at the beginning of the sixties. In a little village in Lucanie, little region in the south, four children live in a situation of absolute poverty, but with their plays in the street succeed in living in happiness. In the air the menace and, in the same time, the hope of a telephonic convocation by their relatives, already at work in coalmines in Belgie, in the mine district of Limburg. Two of our children leave with their families, to reach the numerous Italian community of Flandres. The children will have a lot of problems, in the school and with the language, to integrate in a hostile ambient, but, at the end the will succeed.

Directed by Fulvio Wetzl, Mineurs leans on a strong ensemble — Franco Nero, Valeria Vaiano, Antonino Iuorio — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 2007.